Classifying Chemical Elements and Particles: from the Atomic to the Sub-Atomic World Maurice Kibler
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Classifying chemical elements and particles: from the atomic to the sub-atomic world Maurice Kibler To cite this version: Maurice Kibler. Classifying chemical elements and particles: from the atomic to the sub-atomic world. Second Harry Wiener International Memorial Conference, Jul 2003, Banff, Canada. pp.297-329. hal- 00000783v2 HAL Id: hal-00000783 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00000783v2 Submitted on 8 Jan 2008 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. http://arXiv.org/quant-ph/0310155 October 2003 Classifying chemical elements and particles: from the atomic to the sub-atomic world Maurice R Kibler Institut de Physique Nucléaire IN2P3-CNRS et Université Claude Bernard Lyon-1 43, Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France Abstract This paper presents two facets. First, we show that the periodic table of chemical elements can be described, understood and modified (as far as its format is concerned) on the basis of group theory and more specifically by using the group SO(4,2)xSU(2). Second, we show that “periodic tables” also exist in the sub- atomic and sub-nuclear worlds and that group theory is of paramount importance for these tables. In that sense, this paper may be considered as an excursion, for non specialists, into nuclear and particle physics. The present work was presented as an invited talk to The Second Harry Wiener International Memorial Conference: “ The Periodic Table: Into the 21 st Century ”, Brewster’s KGR near Banff, Alberta, Canada, July 14-20, 2003. In memory of Jean Gréa This paper is dedicated to the memory of Jean Gréa who, like Harry Wiener, was a universal man. Jean was a physicist with a large flow of activities in theoretical physics. He started with nuclear physics, then switched to pre-quantum mechanics (theory of hidden variables), continued with simulations in physics and the theory of signal and finally made important contributions in didactics and philosophy of sciences. He was the co-founder of the LIRDHIST ( Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Didactique et en Histoire des Sciences et Techniques ) at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 . As a teacher, he knew how to communicate his enthusiasm to students. He was very much oriented to other people. He knew how to listen to others, how to answer questions by sometimes asking other questions and how to help people. Merci Jean. Published in: The Periodic Table: Into the 21 st Century , D.H. Rouvray and R.B. King, Eds., Research Studies Press, Baldock, United Kingdom, 2004, pp. 297-329. Classifying chemical elements and particles: from the atomic to the sub-atomic world.........................................................................................................................1 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................3 2 Elements from Antiquity to 2003 .....................................................................4 2.1 From Antiquity to the 18 th century ...........................................................4 2.2 From Lavoisier to Mendeleev...................................................................5 2.3 From 1870 to 2003....................................................................................7 2.4 Comparison with particle physics.............................................................7 3 Group theory in Chemistry and Physics ...........................................................9 3.1 Groups ......................................................................................................9 3.2 Representations.......................................................................................10 3.3 Examples ................................................................................................11 3.3.1 The group SO(4).................................................................................11 3.3.2 The group SU(3).................................................................................11 3.3.3 The group SO(4,2)..............................................................................11 4 Group theory and the periodic table of chemical elements.............................12 4.1 The importance of the atomic number Z.................................................12 4.2 The importance of quantum mechanics..................................................12 4.3 The Madelung rule..................................................................................13 4.4 An SO(4,2)xSU(2) approach to the periodic table..................................15 4.5 Towards a quantitative approach............................................................18 5 A periodic table in the sub-atomic word.........................................................19 5.1 The use of group theory for particles and their interactions ...................19 5.2 The standard model.................................................................................19 5.3 How has the periodic table of particles arisen?.......................................20 5.3.1 1932: The ideal world (the Golden Age) ............................................20 5.3.2 1962: The world gets complicated......................................................21 5.3.3 1964: The world gets simpler .............................................................23 5.3.4 Other important steps..........................................................................25 5.4 Some current pivotal research in particle physics...................................26 5.4.1 Theoretical aspects..............................................................................26 5.4.2 Experimental aspects ..........................................................................27 6 Closing remarks..............................................................................................28 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................29 Elements of bibliography........................................................................................29 Some primary sources on the periodic system....................................................29 Historical outlines...............................................................................................29 Periodic table in Flatland....................................................................................30 Periodic table for molecules ...............................................................................30 Quantum-mechanical approaches to the periodic table ......................................30 SO(4,2) approaches to the periodic table............................................................30 Other group theoretical approaches to the periodic table ...................................31 Ceric and yttric rare earths..................................................................................31 New meson and new baryon...............................................................................31 2 Classifying chemical elements and particles: from the atomic to the sub-atomic world Maurice R Kibler Institut de Physique Nucléaire IN2P3-CNRS et Université Claude Bernard Lyon-1 43, Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France 1 Introduction Holding a conference in 2003 on the periodic table of chemical elements may seem somewhat curious at first sight. The periodic table has been the object of so many studies that it is hard to imagine any new developments on the subject except perhaps from the perspective of History, Scientific Philosophy, Epistemology, Sociology or Politics. From the point of view of Chemistry and Physics, what can be said about the periodic table in the 21 st century? Along this vein, we may ask the following questions. • Does the periodic table have a limit? • Do other formats in two or three dimensions provide insight for teaching purposes? • What can be learned from periodic tables in other dimensions (as for example in Flatland, a two-dimensional space, or in a four-dimensional space)? • What can be gained from a quantum-mechanical approach and what is the importance of relativistic quantum mechanics for the periodic table? • What can be gained from a group theoretical approach to the periodic table? • What are the implications of a group theoretical approach for molecules? • How may the periodic table of neutral atoms be extended to a periodic table for ions or to a periodic table for molecules? • What are the analogues of the periodic table in the sub-atomic world and in the sub-nuclear world? Many of these questions were addressed during the Second Harry Wiener International Memorial Conference and the reader will find some answers in this volume and in the other publications connected to the conference. This paper deals with two of the preceding questions. First, we show that the periodic table of chemical elements can be described, understood and modified (as far as its format is concerned) on the basis of group theory and more specifically